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In praise of recessions

What I mean by that statement is that it’s not hard to figure out what to do as a parent (simple), but it’s frequently difficult to implement in practice (not easy).

Little Vivian wants a glass of apple juice, but it’s an hour and a half before dinner and she’d prefer to drink apple juice 24/7 rather than eat any solid food–ever!

I have a choice: I can give her the apple juice she so much desires and worry she won’t eat the food she needs, or I can give her some non-apple-juice options to make sure she’ll be hungry for dinner.

It’s easy to give her the apple juice, right? But, will it result in the long run outcome I want? Probably not. So, I offer her water and tell her she doesn’t want to ruin her appetite for dinner.

The first several times I provide this option, Vivian–like any self-respecting 3-year-old– breaks down in tears. Not being entirely hard-hearted, I feel sympathy at the cutest screaming fit you’ve ever seen (not easy).

I know the right option (simple), but I dread the implementation (not easy).

After 3 iterations of this process, though, Vivian no longer breaks down and cries. She expects this outcome and goes about her life quite happily knowing she can’t have what she wants whenever she wants it.

And so it is with the economy, too. Knowing human nature, it’s easy to see that people take things to excesses at times. Whether keg parties, American Idol, Nuremberg rallies, or investment fads, people tend to herd in ways that aren’t necessarily best for their long term well-being.

Every once in a while, economic excesses need to be purged, too, and that is what I think recessions do. Investors, consumers, regulators, etc. get caught up in herd behavior, periodically, and recessions allow mis-allocated resources get re-allocated back to productive (positive return on capital) uses.

I’m not hard-hearted enough to enjoy watching people become unemployed any more than I like watching my daughter collapse in tears. But, I must consider the alternative.

If we try to prevent recessions, is the long term outcome better or worse? Giving my daughter the apple juice prevents short term pain (for both her and me), but creates long term problems. And, so it is with recessions.

Preventing recessions leads to a build-up of bigger and bigger problems. Periodic purges prevent major disastrous purges. If you don’t believe me, consider the Great Recession of 2008-2009, the Great Depression, and Japan’s lost decade.

In each case, political intervention was intended to keep the economy on stable footing. The hope was to prevent short-term pain, but with little regard for long term consequences.

I think an analogy to nature here is useful. A catastrophic fire occurred in Yellowstone National Park in 1988 that burned several orders of magnitude more acres of forest than had been experienced in the past (please see Mark Buchanan’s Ubiquity for more information).

At first, experts were bewildered at the damage and what could have caused it. Over time, though, they began to recognize that not letting forest fires occur occasionally had led to a super-critical state where a catastrophic fire was inevitable.

In other words, the attempt to prevent small periodic fires had caused a major forest fire that wouldn’t have even been possible without preventing small fires.

I believe the same thing is at work in the economy. Small periodic recessions are good for purging the under-growth of our economic forest. Without such small recessions, a super-critical state is created. The attempt to prevent small recessions is the cause of large, disastrous ones.

And so, I praise small periodic recessions as the necessary prevention for big, terrible ones. It’s time to take some short term pain that is necessary, but not easy, rather than face the long term calamities that are simply not necessary.

It’s time for the parents to say no to the kids who want something that’s bad for their long term well-being.

Nothing in this blog should be considered investment, financial, tax, or legal advice. The opinions, estimates and projections contained herein are subject to change without notice. Information throughout this blog has been obtained from sources believed to be accurate and reliable, but such accuracy cannot be guaranteed.

Other than the Ubiquity book I referred to in the post, everything else has come from my reading on economics and finance over the last 16 years. There are many books on behavior finance that cover the human tendency side of things, and on the economics side I mostly agree with the Austrian school. I've connected most of the dots for this artcle on my own, though. Thanks for reading!